Mechanical pets are a great addition to any team! They are furry, and cuddly and adorable and—and—and! Whoops. I mean cute and assembled. These little guys can pack a wallop if you aren’t careful. “Come with me if you want to live!” Mechanical Squirrels have great defensive abilities like Extra Plating, and Repair. Extra Plating reduces all damage done by 50% for 3 rounds, and Repair heals your pet for a significant amount! (depends on your pet’s level). This pet is not too be underestimated! A well-played level 22 squirrel can easily take out 3 level 25 wild pets without rusting his tail. At level 20 mechanical squirrels get a mean ability called Windup. The first use increases damage by 10%, the second unleashes a flurry of attacks that could very well knock a pets lights out! That my friends, is one tough metal head.

After trying to look up some problems within the Priest healing class, I stumbled across a few scenarios within 10 man raids, and 25 man raids. To my dismay priests were pulling up the rear in healing, followed by druids, shamans, pallys were trailing monks, and it seems monks (being OP) were leading the pack. Looks like a race, sounds like some BS. What is the problem here?

1. Level 90 talents, which are supposed to be situational, often pull aggro from unwanted mobs, and if not used perfectly can be a huge waste of precious mana.

The talents are Cascade, Divine Star, Halo.

Cascade

40 yd range 9% of base mana

25 sec cooldown Instant

Launches a Holy bolt at the target that grows in power as it travels, which causes up to 10,290 damage to an enemy, or up to 10,290 healing to an ally.
This effect can bounce from allies to other allies, or from enemies to other enemies. Each time it bounces it will split into 2 bolts, preferring farther away targets, and never hitting the same target twice. Cascade can bounce up to 3 times.

Divine Star

30 yd range 4.5% of base mana

15 sec cooldown Instant

Fires a Divine Star in front of you, traveling 24 yds, causing 3,429 Divine damage to all enemies and 3,429 healing to all allies within 6 yds of its path.
After reaching its destination it will return to you, also dealing damage and healing to all targets in its path.

Halo

30 yd range 13.5% base mana

40 sec cooldown instant

Creates a ring of holy energy around you that quickly expands and grows in power, up to 30 yds away. Deals up to 20,580 Holy damage to enemies, and up to 34,301 healing to allies, with the greatest effect at 25 yds.

These talents are completely mana inefficient. A well positioned halo would be effective, but if judged wrong, the most expensive ability at level 90 now becomes a BUST. There’s an addon I have yet to try that is called Halo Pro that is supposed to help with maximizing the healing on the target you’ve selected. It seems worth and try since halo is the strongest talent available. Though, with people constantly on the move (especially during a raid boss) positioning yourself, and then actually hitting your targets is another game entirely. For example, yesterday in LFR I was rolling with halo. Being a priest, I don’t move unless I have too. Most times there were a few folks that were a nice distance away, and they got the full benefit of this heal. Then again, I was trying to hit the tank that was a little further away, and it missed him. WHOOPS!

2. Mana, and Mana Regen.

So, what do priests have to complain about?

Rapture has been nerfed, so instead of giving a certain % of mana back, it gives back mana for 150% of your spirit, which does not even cover the cost of one Power Word: Shield. So, instead of gemming all out for intel, we are now forced to gem for spirit. Remember when we could get away with having gear without spirit? Those days are over. It’s too costly these days. Get gung-ho for spirit!

Holy’s mana situation this expansion was shocking. Mindbender is moody. If it is used on a boss that goes inactive, or if it is used on a mob that dies, there are times when it will return to your side. I’ve caught mindbender chilling at my side on more than a few occasions, and I wish I could reach through the screen and slap him silly. I’ve been more mindful of when to use him since these occurences, but I still find him at my side from time to time.

I noticed a lot of people who have been playing disco as their main are now switching over to holy because of the mana situation. I have been playing holy as my main for about 4 years, going on 5. Wow time flies! I’m finding holy’s mana situation so awful that I wouldn’t even trust myself with that spec in a raid at the moment. Needless to say I am tank healing for our first raid boss, The Stone Guardians, so I don’t have the choice to play holy either way.

3. Lightspring or Lightwell

Lightwell has been through its ups and downs. It started having a bit of a come back in cataclysm, but it seems Pandaria is hellbent on thwarting it into its miserable place. Unlike lightwell, lightspring heals the players without contact. After most boss fights I see my lightspring sitting at 14/15 uses. This could be because I rarely let people fall below 50% health, but I digress. Lightspring is probably better suited for a raid environment, and remains in my eyes as a weak ability. I don’t have time to babysit my lightspring, and the original lightspring I put down will probably need to be replenished by the end of the fight. So how is lightspring really doing? Uh. About that.

4. Dailies

Welcome to the World of Dailes. I don’t know about you, but I absolutely hate dailies. One of my favorite little Shamans used to poke at me to do my Tol Barad dailies every day, and he would even invite me to his group just to get me away from the bonfire in Org. Soooo. What’s a healing priest to do when you roll both a holy and a disco spec? Struggle, with tears sweat and blood. I run disco for dailies and I get gang banged. Don’t get me wrong, I can do them by myself. It’s no problem. I had my cute little warrior friend go with me just recently, and he cut the time it takes me to do them in HALF. I don’t want to have to ask someone to come with me every day to do my dailies. There are just too many of them, so what’s a sweet priest supposed to do?

Pick up Shadow. Respec. Respec some more. Or, struggle like it’s the new and upcoming way of playing. (like me!)

With my experience in Mists of Pandaria, the four flaws that stick out like a sore thumb are : Lv 90 abilities, mana regen, lightspring, and dailies. Without a doubt, priests have major flaws in their character makeup, and the way that they are able to function within a raid environment, and in the world. The shortcomings of the priest class are so severe that it is common that they are pulling up the rear in healing numbers. I feel that my raid is paying a high price for a stam buff and a few bubbles.

This is the first outfit I popped out with at random as I started collecting gear.

Not as fly as I would have hoped but it’s what came together 🙂

Since I’ve already changed the outfit and no longer know exactly what pieces these are, this is just for show. She looks like a Mummy with scary glowy eyes! Happy Halloween! Above all, the most attractive aspect about this outfit is the Umbrella of Chi-Ji. The beautiful detail put into the offhand is just so fetch!

This item can be obtained by Archaeology! You have to dig and eventually you’ll be able to complete this rare item. Its well worth it for a off-hand when you first start gearing up, and its a great transmog.

So word on the street is that Ginger’s have NO SOULS> The first time I heard this phrase was in college drinking with my room mates. The blonde hippie that lived on the other side came bounding out of her room holding her finger in the air. “Ginger’s have no souls. You know why? Because they are GINGERS!” Well ladies and gentlemen, there you have it. I think it’s because he was a bad lay, but I digress ^_~

It’s just magical when you find an ordinary dress that matches so perfectly with some pretty awesome tier pieces! This outfit literally transcends my toon onto a whole other plane of awesomeness. See the sparkle in my toons eye? Actually, that’s a fairly misleading shot of her. I think when I made her I chose the “Snotty McSnotster” face. She always looks so mean! I guess a healer has to have a backbone to deal with all the boneheads. Oh wait…what’s that in her hand?